Seleucus retakes Babylon: the Seleucid era
For centuries the East will count its years from this one
In 312 BC the Diadoch Seleucus, who had fled from Antigonus to Egypt, returned and retook Babylon. The year was counted as the founding of the Seleucid Empire, and the 'Seleucid era' dating from it remained in use in the Middle East for more than a thousand years.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 4th century BC
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Africa
- 331 BC Founding of Alexandria — 19 years earlier
- 305 BC Ptolemy I proclaims himself king — 7 years later
- c. 300 BC Euclid's Elements — 12 years later
Asia
- c. 322 BC Founding of the Maurya Empire — 10 years earlier
Americas
- c. 300 BC Maya script — 12 years later
- c. 300 BC–150 El Mirador, capital of the Preclassic Maya — 12 years later
Alive at the time
- Mencius (aged 60)
- Epicurus (aged 29)
- Chandragupta Maurya (aged 28)
- Euclid (aged 13)
- Zhuangzi (aged 57)
- Ptolemy I Soter (aged 55)
- Pyrrho (aged 48)
- Pytheas (aged 38)
- Qu Yuan (aged 28)
- Zeno of Citium (aged 22)